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Outside view of the Main Market Square in the Old Town of Kraków, Poland, with the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Photo: Tomasz Tomal on Unsplash)

Poland | The spectre of mass redundancies is haunting the Polish city of Krakow, long a hub of shared services centres for international firms. As nothing is certain or confirmed, many locals fear that Heineken is at the forefront of job cuts, allegedly considering a reduction of up to 700 positions in its Krakow shared services centre. They could go to a new centre in India’s Hyderabad. The Krakow branch has been operating since 2012, serving the brewer’s global processes.

Two beer bottles, a green Heineken and a brown Imperial bottle, in front of a  a sandy beach with palm trees; next to this picture is a map of Central America (Image: Courtesy of Heineken; map: Cacahuate, amendments by Joelf, Map of Central America, Ausschnitt, CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Netherlands | The seven central American countries with an estimated population of 52 million people have rarely been in the news in recent years, except when foreign media decided to report on its endemic violence and corruption stemming from organized crime and the drug trade. So, it was a piece of good news, highlighting the region’s business potential, that Heineken announced on 23 September, it will acquire the beverage and retail operations of Florida Ice and Farm Company (FIFCO) in a deal valued at about USD 3.2 billion in cash.

Close-up of a beer tap in a bar, bearing the Greene King IPA logo, next to a glass of beer (Photo: Courtesy of Greene King)

United Kingdom | The pub operator and brewer Greene King broke ground on a new, state-of-the-art brewery in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, in August, marking the start of a GBP 40 million (USD 54 million) construction project to build a more sustainable facility.

Visitors speaking to a brewer behind the bar at the Great British Winter Beer Festival 2025 (Photo: courtesy of CAMRA)

United Kingdom | CAMRA, the real ale enthusiasts’ group, cancelled Britain’s biggest beer festival amid an existential crisis as it launched a cost-cutting drive, The Guardian newspaper reported on 10 September.

Two people clinking two white and green Carlsberg Premium Elephant cans in a sunlit forest, the focus of the picture is on the cans (Photo: Travel With Enfield on Unsplash)

Denmark | Carlsberg is reportedly evaluating a potential listing of its Indian operations, media reported on 16 September. The time seems to be right as Carlsberg India had a robust financial year 2024 with revenues of approximately INR 80 billion (USD 910 million). Results for its financial year 2025 (ending March 2025) are not available yet.

Bronze figurine of a blindfolded Lady Justice, holding her scales up with her right hand (Photo: Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash)

Austria | Faced with a potential fine of billions of euros if found guilty of market power abuses, Dutch Heineken is trying to distance itself from its fully-owned Austrian subsidiary Brau Union. Representatives from both Heineken and Brau Union insisted at the Vienna cartel court on 8 September that the Austrian market leader can act autonomously and freely. Austrian media wonder: Is this plausible?

Outside view of the Temple Bar in Dublin; a typical red corner pub on the ground floor of a brick building (Photo: Svein-Magne Tunli - tunliweb.no - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44948169)

Ireland | Owning a pub in Ireland must be lucrative. Or why would the hospitality group Hillbreak that operates one of the country’s most famous pubs, the Temple Bar in Dublin’s Temple Bar district, increase its revenue by 8 percent to EUR 33 million (USD 39 million) in the 12 months to the end of October 2024? That equals revenues of approximately USD 750,000 per week, Irish media reported on 8 September.

Two red park benches in front of a brick building with a sign saying, Guinness is good for you (Photo: K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash)

United Kingdom | The single most important question to ask about the future of the drinks industry: are structural lifestyle changes to blame for the decline in sales or is it cyclical macroeconomic issues. So far beer and drinks industry leaders are adamant that the biggest challenges are “cyclical” – at least that’s what they stressed in their recent financial results. Now it was Nik Jhangiani’s turn, who succeeded Debra Crew as interim CEO of Diageo in July, to join the debate.

Red and white sign saying, exit only, with an arrow pointing in one direction, in front of a red wall (Photo: Chris Robert on Unsplash)

Belgium | A significant number of shares in AB-InBev's Belgian anchor holding Eugénie Patri Sébastien (EPS) was withdrawn in 2024. A generation gap between the Belgian shareholders is part of the reason for their departure. “The younger generations no longer drink alcohol. They have issues with a brewery,” explains the journalist Wolfgang Riepl in an article for the Belgian business magazine Trends (4 September). Add to their moral concerns about alcohol the brewer’s lacklustre share price and its dependence on organic growth after decades of spectacular takeovers and you can probably find more explanations for their departure.

KTM X-Bow at the IAA 2007 (Photo: LSDSL (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KTM_X-Bow_(IAA_2007)_2.jpg#mw-jump-to-license), „KTM X-Bow (IAA 2007) 2“, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/de/legalcode)

Austria | It must be a fun business: A group of motorsport enthusiasts, led by the Belgian industrialist family De Mevius – a major shareholder in AB-InBev – has taken over KTM Sportcar. It is a subsidiary of the motorcycle firm KTM, which produces the X-Bow sports cars. The insolvent parent company KTM was acquired by the Indian Bajaj Auto International Holdings in May.

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